


Breakdown

by trinityrenee



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Best Friends, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Modern AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-09
Updated: 2014-05-09
Packaged: 2018-01-24 02:03:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1587608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trinityrenee/pseuds/trinityrenee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arya Stark has been best friends with Gendry Waters since she was nine years old, even after she moved back to Winterfell and came back to move in with her boyfriend after graduating high school.  However, her relationship is far from perfect and it's about to come to an end and Arya can't figure out what the hell her emotions are doing to her.  Based loosely off of the song "Breakdown" by Meg & Dia.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Breakdown

**Author's Note:**

> So this is something that I've been working on for the last like...six months or so. It was planned to only be a one-shot, but then turned out way longer and now it's turned into a multi-chapter fic of its own volition because holy crap my Arya x Gendry feels for this song are ridiculous. I wasn't planning on posting this yet, but I figured why the hell not and did anyway. So here, have the first large portion of this~
> 
> Chapter titles will also be subsequent lyrics from the song "Breakdown" by Meg & Dia.

"What the fuck, Jaqen!?" Arya screamed as she looked up at the window of what was supposed to be her apartment. A duffel bag came flying from the window, her shoes and various other items of hers following after. "What the hell are you doing!?" People were watching now. The neighbors were going to know that she and Jaqen had had another fight. She wasn't sure she could take that embarrassment again. It wasn't like their arguments were a secret or anything. They'd been together for years, living in this same flat, and still they had not gotten over their differences or their tempers towards one another.

Lately, it felt like all they ever did was argue. And that wasn't far off from the truth.

"Go, stubborn girl!" he shouted back at her, his head sticking out of the window. His red and white hair fell around his angled face and his eyes had that murderous sheen in them. Not that he would ever kill her, Arya hoped. It was just that when he got angry, he got that same look in his eyes.

 _'Go where?'_ she thought to herself as she huffed a sigh. Her hands balled into fists, which planted themselves on her hips in an attempt to give a demanding pose, her feet spreading out. "We need to talk, Jaqen!" she called back. She didn't want to have to try to find somewhere to go that night. She didn't have any money on her and her instinct told her that bastard boyfriend of hers had conveniently not thrown her wallet into that duffel bag before throwing it out the window. He shook his head and then disappeared back inside. A moment later, the window slammed shut and Arya was left alone outside. "Fine! Fuck you, too!"

Lights flickered on in some of the other houses and apartments. The neighbors were watching from their windows and doors, she could feel them. Arya growled and shouldered her bag, slipping her shoes onto her feet before gathering everything else that had fallen. She didn't want to cause any more of a scene than they already had. Doing anything other than leaving would leave a bad impression on the people around her. Not that it would help anything. They still thought her crazy and avoided her like the damned plague.

She grumbled to herself as she stalked off down the sidewalk, her feet taking her down the roads. She wasn't sure where she was headed. It was nearly two in the morning and she didn't really have anywhere to go. Her closest family member was Sansa, and she lived on the other side of King's Landing in the Crowns District. Even if the buses were running, it would still take her over an hour and a half to get there from the outskirts of Flea Bottom. Arya didn't really have a whole lot of friends, either, and certainly none that she could stay with for the night.

She still couldn't believe that Jaqen had actually kicked her out onto the streets. Wasn't that the kind of thing that the woman in the relationship was supposed to do to the man? _'I guess that just shows the kind of relationship we have…'_ she mused. Her feet took her to another apartment building a couple of miles from her house. It had to be close to three in the morning by the time she got there. She stared up at the windows of the apartment on the top floor, her head cocked and her shoulder-length near-black hair falling over her eyes.

The apartment belonged to one of her co-workers, who had been one of her best friends for years, ever since her father had moved she and her sister down here for his extended business trip and forced them to go to school in King's Landing for a few years before heading back to Winterfell. But it was three o'clock in the morning and he was probably asleep with his girlfriend wrapped around him, nice and cozy. Sighing, Arya turned away and scuffed her feet against the sidewalk as she continued walking. She went into a coffee shop next, fighting off the yawns and the exhaustion threatening to take her over. The young woman hadn't slept more than three hours a night in the last week and it was starting to wear heavily on her.

She ordered a cup of coffee and dumped her duffel and herself into a booth seat at one of the more secluded tables towards the back. Her head hit the table and she groaned. Arya cursed herself for being a stubborn girl, trying to recall what it was that she and her boyfriend had been fighting about in the first place.

The search for what had gone wrong was futile. There was no way she was going to remember what had started the whole damn fiasco in the first place...

Her coffee arrived and she took it gratefully, downing a generous gulp of it before she slowed down her drinking, trying to make it last as long as possible. It wasn't much longer until the check for her coffee and the refills came to her. And that was when she remembered that she hadn't thought to check if her boyfriend had given up her wallet…

Arya nearly dropped her cup of coffee on the table as she panicked and went to dig through the duffel bag. No luck. Her cell phone was there, with no missed calls or text messages. Figures. Jaqen threw her out on the street. What made her think he would want to talk to her? Shaking her head, she thought of who she could call or text to come rescue her. Her mind drifted back to her best friend… He would save her in a second, wouldn't he? Of course he would…

She checked the time. ' _Four thirty, huh? Damn… Oh well… Hope he doesn't hate me.'_ Arya scrolled through her contacts until she found the name she was looking for, selecting it and holding the phone up to her ear as it rang.

"Hullo?" the sleepy voice sounded on the other end.

"Fuck. I woke you up, didn't I? I'm sorry, Gendry..." A minimal amount of regret filled her. She had decided to call him despite the risk of waking him up, so it was useless to feel regret or anything of the like.

"Arya? Why are you calling me at…" he paused, "four thirty in the morning?"

"Um…sorry. I just…kinda left my wallet at my apartment and went to the coffee shop down the street and don't have anything on me." She could tell him the whole of it when he got there.

"So you need me to come save your ass so you don't have to wash any dishes, right?" Gendry asked. His voice was light-hearted and open, not angry at all. But still Arya felt like she was being more of a burden to him than she normally was.

"Kinda? I'm really sorry, Gendry…"

"It's cool, Arya. Which coffee shop is it you're at? I'll be there in ten."

"It's the one not far from your building. Like…three blocks away or something?"

He was silent for a few moments before he laughed sleepily. "Why the hell are you there at four in the morning? Whatever. You can explain that later. Be there in five." With that, he hung up the phone and Arya was left alone with her thoughts and silence again.

She typed up a text message to Jaqen, but didn't hit the send button. Whatever it was that they needed to discuss could wait until she got home from work tomorrow. And with any luck he would let her come back like he usually did.

As usual, Gendry Waters was spot on with telling her he would be there in five minutes. He walked through the door and looked rather frazzled with his shaggy, blue-black hair sticking up at all ends and his shirt on backwards. Arya couldn't help the laugh that escaped her lips at the sight of him. He looked down at her with a frown. "What?" he asked before plopping down across from her.

She pointed to his chest. "Your shirt's on backwards, stupid. And inside-out." He looked down, scowling slightly before looking back up to her.

"Whatever. I'll fix it later. That's what you get for forcing me to come down here in the middle of the night."

Arya shrugged, going back to sipping at her coffee. The waitress came back round to ask what Gendry would like and to give Arya another refill on her coffee, leaving them alone once more after a moment.

"So why _are_ you up right now, anyway? Last I knew, you were one of those almost-normal people who enjoyed sleeping at fairly decent hours." Arya scoffed at his comment, looking up at him with a sly smile. "And by decent hours, I mean being asleep no later than two in the morning and waking up no earlier than seven," he added. Arya rolled her Stark-grey eyes at him.

"I..." she paused as the waitress brought another cup coffee for Gendry. "Jaqen and I had a fight and he threw me out," she said passively as she watched the waitress disappear into the back kitchen.

Gendry was silent. Arya could feel him watching her, but she didn't meet his eyes. She focused instead on her coffee cup. Talking about the problems in her relationship was not something she typically did. At all. With anyone. Not even Gendry, the guy she had known for thirteen years, since she was nine.

Finally, he sighed. "What did you do that was bad enough to warrant him kicking you out on the street at an ungodly hour of the night?"

Indignant, Arya frowned. "I don't remember. Nothing. I didn't _do_ anything. We just were fighting about something stupid and the next thing I knew, I was on the cement with a duffel bag flying towards me out the window."

Gendry laughed. Which only made Arya more angry. "You mean to tell me, that you, _Arya Stark_ , let your boyfriend throw you out onto the street without any recourse? What's gotten into you?"

There was a pricking sensation in the back of her eyes and she could tell there were tears threatening to fall from her eyes. She swallowed the lump that had appeared in her throat and bit down on the inside of her cheeks hard. She realized that fighting with her boyfriend was bad. She realized that _she_ should have been the one who kicked him out rather than the opposite. But she didn't need her best friend telling her off or talking down to her about it, or turning it into a joke, or whatever it was that he was doing.

"I'm leaving," she announced, slamming the coffee cup down onto the table. She frowned and scooted herself out of the booth, grabbing her duffel bag as she did so. Gendry's hand fell on the table, making her stop and look at it. He had grown serious again, but there was a lightness to his bright blue eyes that told her he wasn't angry with her.

"No you aren't. Where are you going to go, hmm? You didn't make me come out here to save your ass at four in the morning for nothing. Have you gotten any sleep tonight?" She sighed, sinking back into the booth seat. Shaking her head, she kept her eyes on the coffee cup that was once again empty. She felt a buzz of energy, but there was also an underlying current of the exhaustion that had been creeping up on her for days.

"Okay then. Let's head back to my place and you can get some sleep before work," he said reasonably. Arya's head jerked up quickly to look at him. There was a bemused expression on his face, one that she saw when was trying to let her know that he cared for her as a friend.

"Won't your girlfriend be pissed if she wakes up to find me on your couch?" she asked without knowing why she did. Here was her best friend, whom she didn't get to spend much time around anymore, offering her a place to sleep and rescuing her from the fact that she didn't have any money on her, and Arya was challenging it. She had a habit of pushing people away to see how far they would let her before they got tired of it and just left altogether.

He looked at her quizzically, his brow furrowing. "What are you- Oh. You mean Willow? She and I broke up a year ago." It was Arya's turn to be confused now. Certainly she had heard Gendry talk about his girlfriend recently?   Well…come to think of it, Arya hadn't really had much of a full conversation with Gendry in the past year due to work and other life obligations. She was always busy. And whenever they did talk, relationships weren't something they talked about. Ever.

"Oh…"

"Come on, let's just go." With that, they both climbed out of the booth. Gendry leaned over the table and swiped her duffel bag before she could, shouldering it while she made protests. He waved her off and grabbed her check, waiting as Arya gathered the rest of her things before leading her over to the register, where the same waitress was waiting.

"Thank you, Gendry," Arya said as he paid for the coffees. He shrugged, thanked the waitress, and then turned to leave, Arya following behind him.

"No worries. You just owe me," he laughed. It didn't take long for them to get to his apartment, and by the time they did, even the buzz from Arya's coffee wasn't enough to keep her awake.

Gendry opened the door to a small apartment. It wasn't messy like Arya expected it would have been. Her apartment almost always had some form of mess in it… Between her and Jaqen, it was hard to keep the damn place clean. But Gendry's apartment was neat. Whatever mess there was seemed to have been organized and in a specific place. She hadn't been into his house in too long…

"Take the bed. I'll sleep on the couch," he said quickly as he closed the door behind them. The lock clicked into place as he yawned. "Hopefully we'll be able to get at least an hour or two of sleep before work," he stated simply. Arya looked back at him and rolled her eyes. She ignored his order to take his bed and instead plopped herself down on the couch before he could, curling up into a ball and closing her eyes.

She could hear him grumbling something about her being as stubborn as ever as he walked back towards his bedroom. A few seconds later, a blanket was thrown over her and Gendry was gone again. It smelled like him. Like metal and fire and grease and sweat, with just a hint of Old Spice. Arya held the blanket to her nose despite herself as she drifted off to sleep, inhaling the scent and letting it surround her completely.

\----

Arya didn't remember falling asleep, but the blaring sounds of an alarm clock somewhere around her made her angry that she had to wake up at all. Groaning, she lifted a hand and went to slap the alarm clock so it would turn off. However, instead of her hand hitting anything, gravity took hold of her and she wound up rolling off of the couch onto the floor.

It was then that she remembered that she wasn't at her apartment anymore.

A groan escaped her lips and she sat up, putting a hand to her pounding head. Movement down the hall made her turn her head, though that only made her wish she hadn't. Not only was her neck stiff, but a shirtless Gendry had entered her view as he walked from his bedroom to the bathroom across the hall. Arya rolled her eyes as she turned away.

A few minutes later, Arya got to her feet and walked back towards the bathroom. Gendry was still locked inside. "Gendry! Get out! I need to piss!" she called, a frown pulling at the edges of her lips.

She heard a chuckle that sounded a bit more annoyed than amused and a few seconds later the door opened and she was staring at her best friend's muscled chest. She blinked momentarily before raising her eyes to meet his. "The bathroom is yours, m'lady," he told her. She scowled and he chuckled.

"Go put a shirt on, Stupid." Arya side-stepped her way around Gendry and into the bathroom. He turned after her, stepping out of her way a bit.

He had an eyebrow cocked into his forehead and she could tell that whatever was about to come out of his mouth next was going to piss her off to no end. "Why? Am I distracting you?" It was obvious that his own question made him slightly uncomfortable, but he tried to play it off with a smile. Arya growled and slammed the bathroom door in his face, hoping that he wouldn't see the flush in her cheeks.

 _'Damn that bastard!'_ she thought as she went about relieving herself. When she was done and had washed her hands, she stood before the mirror for a few moments. She rubbed at her eyes and hated that there was a headache growing inside her skull. She hadn't slept enough, that was plain and simple. What time was it, anyway? Probably somewhere around seven or eight… She'd have to go to work soon…

Sighing, Arya ran a hand through her choppy black hair, prying at the tangles that had somehow managed to get in there in the couple of hours she'd slept. A knock came from the other side of the bathroom door and Arya jumped slightly, turning her head to glare at the door.

"Are you done in there or what? I do have to finish getting ready for work, ya know." Gendry. Of course. Arya rolled her eyes and dropped her hands from her hair as she moved to open the bathroom door and leave. Thankfully, Gendry had put on a shirt during the short time that she had been locked away.

Arya padded her way back to the living room, taking in her surroundings in silence. She went to plop herself back down on the couch, reaching onto the floor for her phone. No missed messages or calls. Figures. She sighed, leaning back to stare up at the ceiling.

"Ready to go?" Gendry asked as he re-surfaced from the bathroom, a light smile on his face. Arya looked over at him pensively.

"You think Mott would kill me if I didn't show up today?" Gendry just smirked and nodded.

"He'd kill you and me. I'm the one who got you the damn job in the first place, remember?"

"Ugh. Fine. I guess I can go…" Arya grumbled.

Before she knew it, they had pulled up to the music store and it was time for another day of work.

It was going to be a _very_ long day.

\----

" Why didn't you call me last night, Arya!?"

The girl sighed, closing her eyes and trying not to lash back at her older sister. Sansa was three years older than Arya, putting her at twenty-five and obviously more mature and more responsible than her little sister's twenty-two years. She should have known that Sansa would find out about her and Jaqen's fight last night. Their boyfriends did work together, after all. Of _course_ she'd find out.

"It was two in the fucking morning, Sansa. What do you think I was going to do? Call your Hound and have him leave work to come pick me up and take me to you? No thanks," Arya retorted. She was supposed to be on her lunch break, not arguing with her stupid sister. She'd done far too much arguing in the last twelve hours for her liking. She took a swig of the Pepsi in her free hand while she listened to her sister give her reasons why she should have just called her last night instead of doing whatever she had.

"It was fine, San. I called Gendry. Things are fine. I'm going to go back tonight, Jaqen and I will talk about it, and everything will be fine. Okay?"

"Oh. Okay. Well in that case, did I tell you what Margaery did?"

"Have I told you that I really don't care?" Arya smiled in satisfaction at the angry huff that came from the other end of the phone.

"Really, Arya, must you be so insufferable?"

"Deal with it."

Another angry huff. "Forget it. Are you and Jaqen going up to Winterfell this weekend?"

Sansa was a master at changing subjects. It used to annoy her when they were younger. It still did, to an extent, but at least they were off the subject of Jaqen and weren't arguing.

"Probably not. I think I have to work and you remember what happened last time we both went to Winterfell…" she said, wincing slightly at the memory. The last time that Arya had been to Winterfell with her boyfriend was two years ago, when she had come to introduce her boyfriend to her parents. Her mother had been furious, her father had been rather cold, and both their wolves and her brothers had nearly torn him to shreds. She was certain he'd break up with her after that fiasco, but he had not. Which was a miracle in and of itself.

She had gone back to Winterfell a few times since, for holidays and such when one of her siblings had gotten on her nerves with begging overmuch. But never again with Jaqen. It had been something they had silently agreed to not talk about.

"Well, I know Dad's been missing you. And I'm sure Mum would be glad to see you again."

"Uh-huh. Sure. Listen, San, I gotta go. My lunch is almost over and I haven't eaten anything, thank you very much."

"Well text me and tell me how it goes with Jaqen later, okay? I should go, too, Dany's holding a meeting in a few minutes."

"Yup. Bye, Sansa." With that, Arya hung up the phone and shoved it back into her pocket with a sigh. The conversation with her sister had drained her more than she wanted to admit. Closing her eyes, Arya rubbed at her temples to attempt to get rid of the headache that had settled itself into her brain. Eating had been forgotten. She wasn't really that hungry anyway. She just wanted the day to be over so she could go home and, hopefully, go back to sleeping in her own bed with her boyfriend.

Arya pushed off of the wall of the music shop, cradling her bottle of Pepsi as she walked back into the cool building. Gendry looked up at her from where he stood with a customer, showing off the selection of guitars they had available. She nodded back at him and walked into the back, clocking in once more and taking one more swig of her Pepsi before going out to the front counter to wait for the day to be over.

\----

White teeth bit down onto the flesh of full lips and grey eyes stared at the door of the apartment quietly. Her hand was poised to knock, but she wasn't entirely sure if she should. Or if she could just go in. How did one handle returning to the apartment she had been kicked out of the previous night? It wasn't like Arya had ever been in this situation before… Jaqen had never thrown her out on her ass like that before. It couldn't have been a good sign.

With a sigh, she shook her head and just opened the door, tossing her duffel bag onto the floor beside the door as she walked in. Jaqen looked up from where he was lounged on the couch, his silver eyes casting over her quietly. Arya waited for him to say something, crossing her arms over her chest in expectation. He ignored her, turning back to the television. She took that as a sign that it was all good for her to return to her home again. With a sigh, she kicked the door closed behind her and grabbed her bag from the floor, dragging it into the bedroom to plop it on the bed. Jaqen followed her.

He was silent as he grabbed her forearms and pulled her towards him, bending his head to kiss her. Her lips met his and it went far beyond the innocent kissing they used to do when they first started dating. The kissing escalated into nipping, biting, and sucking. Before Arya knew it, Jaqen was pushing her back onto their bed in the corner of the room and her pants were off.

They were quick about it. It wasn't lingering or anything special. It was just sex. That's what they had always done. It had never been anything really special for them. Jaqen and Arya were not the type of people to want "special" when it came to things like sex. It was direct. No beating around the bush. No hidden meanings. Just plain and simple sex.

"A girl owes a man an explanation about where she has been without calling or messaging him," Jaqen said. His fingertips trailed along her side, smoothing her skin. She was lying on her side, her back facing him. Though when he spoke, she turned onto her stomach and propped herself up on her elbows.

"Are you fucking joking?"

Jaqen leveled his gaze at her, tilting his head to the side and raising an eyebrow at her. It was his way of saying that he wasn't joking. Arya growled and got up from the bed, her hands on her hips as she turned back to him. "I come back after you _kicked me out_ last night and all you can ask me for is an explanation as to why I haven't called or texted you? Seriously?" Her anger was boiling up again. It wasn't exactly safe for her to be doing this. Jaqen sighed and sat up, shaking his head.

"My apologies, sweet girl. A man did not mean to upset you." His voice and his eyes weren't exactly sincere, but his apology made Arya relax a bit. She was tired of fighting with him and tired of being angry. She had been angry her entire life. It was all that she ever knew how to be. She didn't want to be angry when it came to her relationship. But that was all that it had boiled down to in the end.

She didn't answer his question, though. She wouldn't give him that satisfaction of making her think the whole situation was her fault. It wasn't. Was it? What had they been fighting about last night, anyway? Arya sighed and shook her head, running a hand through her hair as she went to go sit next to him. His arms slid around her quietly and she was pulled into his chest. His sharp chin rested itself on top of her head and she had white and scarlet locks of hair on either side of her face.

"A girl should work out more, a girl is losing her fencer's physique," Jaqen stated after a few moments of silence. Arya tensed, her brows knitting together as she frowned. There was a slight laugh in his voice, trying to show her that he wasn't being serious or anything. But it hurt her, hearing him say those words. She pulled away from him again, shaking her head and getting dressed without another word. They stayed in silence for a few moments as she tapped away angrily at her phone.

"I'm going to go stay with Sansa for a few days," she finally said. Without another look at her boyfriend, she grabbed the duffel bag from where it had been knocked off the bed. From one of the shelves on her bookshelf, she grabbed her wallet and moved to leave. Lingering in the doorway, with Jaqen sitting naked on their bed with a blank expression on his face, she bit on her lip again as she thought of what to say. Finally, she took a deep breath and turned to him. "I don't know if I can do this anymore," she said finally. Her throat felt tight and her heart had begun racing ahead of her unbidden.

Jaqen opened his mouth to say something, but Arya was gone before she could hear whatever it was he was about to tell her. She didn't want to hear his excuses for what he had said. She didn't want to hear anything else that he had to say. It had become clear to her, now, that her apartment was not where she needed to be at the moment. After having been tossed out on her arse last night, she should have realized that she and Jaqen needed time apart from one another for a little while, if not permanently.

The taxi pulled up to the apartment building in a few minutes, ready to take her to the townhouse that her sister rented. The ride was short compared to the bus ride she would have taken had her sister not offered to send a cab for her. When they drove through the neighborhood her sister lived in, with the houses all painted and designed the exact same, Arya grimaced. Perhaps this wasn't the best idea that she had ever had. But it was done and it wasn't like there was any going back now.

Sansa burst through the front door of her home as though she had been waiting for the cab to pull up into her driveway since she'd called them to pick her sister up. The older girl had her auburn hair swept up into a messy bun, a light blue sundress and a pair of sandals acted as her wardrobe. As Arya climbed out of the cab and thanked him, she realized once again just how far apart in personality she and her sister really were.

Sansa paid the driver of the cab and waited until he drove off to wrap her arms around her sister tight. "I am _so_ sorry, Arya. You're more than welcome to stay here as long as you like," she said simply.

"You sure Margaery and Roslin won't mind?" Arya asked softly as she was dragged into the prim and proper house her sister kept. It felt like she was entering an alien world.

"Nonsense! They both love you, you know that! We've got the guest room all set up for you."

"Thanks…" she said, feeling rather awkward as she was ushered along through the house. The guest bedroom was upstairs, down the hallway of other doors that Arya assumed led to the bedrooms of the other girls that her sister lived with, and across from a bathroom (which Arya hoped was not the only bathroom in the house). It was a rather small room, with a twin-sized bed and a short dresser and some pale curtains hanging over the window. It was not the kind of place that Arya would have typically found herself in under any circumstances, but she had kind of run out of options for anywhere else to go at that point. It wasn't like she could continue sleeping on Gendry's couch for more than just last night.

She turned to her sister, who was smiling at her expectantly. ' _Sansa and her damn smiles…_ ' she thought to herself as she tried to force one onto her face.

"Thanks," she said again. What else was there to say? Sansa got a sad look in her eyes for a moment before she wiped it away.

"You're welcome, Arya. If there's anything you need, just let me know, okay?"

Long gone were the days when the sisters were at each other's throats constantly. Sansa moving out and going to college directly after graduating high school and only coming round for Christmas and Arya's graduation (something that the older girl had hailed as a 'surprise to everyone') had put distance between their fighting and they had calmed their anger towards one another. It had been nearly seven years since Sansa had moved out on her own and the experience had changed her for the better, by far. Their parents were pleased with that change and the development of their relationship, and Arya was as well to an extent. But it was times like these when she sorely missed the arguments they used to have. It had been more familiar to her than whatever their relationship was now.

"Sandor is coming by later for dinner.   You don't have to eat with us or anything. Just thought you should know," Sansa announced before turning to leave.

Ah yes. And then there was Sansa's giant of a boyfriend who was nearly twice her age, Sandor Clegane. Arya and he had a…strained relationship. But he was far better for her sister than that prick Joffrey Baratheon had been.

Arya shook her head and tossed her duffel onto the bed, standing awkwardly in the middle of the small bedroom. She heard the door open below and a loud female voice came from down the hallway and stairs and Arya grimaced, not looking forward to dealing with the two girls that her sister lived with. But she would deal with them for now. It wasn't like she had much of a choice now, did she?

\----

"So…I think I broke up with Jaqen yesterday," Arya stated casually as she and Gendry sat on the back counter of the music shop. Her brows had knitted together in thought and she'd bit down on her lower lip. He looked up from the guitar in his hands and over at her, his brows raised slightly in questioning. She didn't elaborate. If he wanted to know the details, then he could ask, she decided. She didn't usually speak about her relationship or her personal life or anything like that. It just wasn't something that Arya Stark felt the need to do. But for one reason or another, she felt like she needed to share with Gendry.

She pumped her legs, her heels hitting the cabinets below the countertop she and her best friend were sitting on. They were silent for a few minutes, the only sounds the music pumping over the speakers of the store.

"Oh," he finally said before turning back to his guitar. "Do you need somewhere to stay?" he said after a few more moments of silence. He hadn't started playing again. Arya looked over at him from the corners of her eyes, wondering at his reaction.

"No. I'm staying with Sansa." Short and simple. Most of her words were. Though those two short sentences brought Gendry's attention away from his guitar and back to her.

"…You're staying all the way in Crowns!? For how long?" Arya shrugged and hopped off the counter. Her hands stuffed themselves into the front pockets of her ripped up skinny jeans.

"However long it takes. I don't know if we're broken up or if we're just on a break…" she admitted. She watched Gendry quietly as he nodded his head slowly and seemed to tear himself away from her to go back to his guitar. His fingers began moving along the frets and the strings and Arya took that as a sign that he was done talking about the subject. That was alright with her. She was done talking about it as well.

\-----

"Do you want to come over tonight for a couple hours? Play some games or something?" Gendry asked almost awkwardly as he and Arya stood outside the shop after getting off. Beric and Lem had come in for the closing shift, relieving them both for the day. The girl paused, looking up at her best friend with a small smile before shrugging.

"Why not? We haven't really had much of a chance to hang out outside of work lately, have we?" she replied. He smiled at her and something in her stomach flipped and she briefly had the sensation of her heart nearly stopping. ' _The fuck was that?'_ she asked herself. Arya offered a smile of her own back at him and was rewarded with his smile only growing. Why was he so excited to hang out with her?

Gendry's black Jetta sat in the far parking spot. Arya scowled when he opened the door for her and held it open while she climbed in, closing it after her. He still held a smile on his face for one reason or another, ignoring her scowl. "What the hell are you up to, Gendry?" she asked herself as she watched him walk around the car to the other side.

They sat in silence during the five minute drive back to his apartment.   Arya climbed out of the car quickly, before her best friend had the chance to do anything like opening her door for her again. She hated being treated like a proper young woman, and he knew that. So what the hell was he thinking acting that way? The thought clouded her head as she followed him up to his apartment, taking in the same living room she'd slept in briefly early yesterday morning. It hadn't changed much, other than the trash being picked up off the coffee table and the kitchen counters.

She took a seat on the couch, stretching her legs out before her and staring up at the ceiling. "I think you probably have the most comfortable couch ever," she mused with a slight smile. Gendry chuckled at her comment, moving to flick the television on and look through his modest collection of video games.

"I know. That's why I bought it. What game do you want to play?"

Arya shrugged and sat up a bit straighter, lifting her head off the back of the couch cushions. "Don't care."

"You sure are handling this breakup thing well," he said instead, turning back to the shelf of games to attempt to pick one. Arya shrugged again, sighing inwardly.

"Why wouldn't I?"

"You two were together for like…three years, weren't you?"

"So?" Gendry chuckled at her response and Arya felt herself grow frustrated with him. "What do you want me to do? Be a hot mess like Sansa would be right now? And I thought you knew me," she said bitterly. Gendry froze for a second, turning around and staring at her silently. They stayed like that, staring at one another across the room. Finally he sighed and shook his head.

"I don't know what I expected, Arya. Sorry."

"I'm the one who broke up with him. Or who is breaking up with him. I don't even know if we're _actually_ broken up yet or not," she said.

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"I mean…I don't know. I told him I didn't know if I could deal with the relationship anymore and left him there. I don't…I don't know if I can be with him anymore. He doesn't seem to want to be with me anymore, so why should I want to be with him?"

"Jaqen's a fucking idiot…" Gendry said softly, turning away from Arya again. Her brows furrowed together at his response and she sighed.

"It doesn't matter, Gendry. Let's just play some Grand Theft Auto or something. I feel like running people over," Arya told him, silently wondering at the change in his mood once she mentioned her boyfriend. Or ex-boyfriend. Whatever he was to her now.

He nodded in silence and seemed to be brooding on something as he took the game from his shelf and popped it into the PlayStation that Arya had given him for his birthday a couple of years back. He'd been so furious with her when he opened it and saw what she'd bought for him....

Gendry handed her a controller and they began playing. They didn't really speak much more. Gendry continued to brood on whatever was going on in his head and Arya was content to not talk about anything and just make some attempt at relaxation.

When she returned to Sansa's later that evening, she couldn't help but to wonder what he had meant by his remark on Jaqen's lack of intelligence. If anything, Gendry was the one being stupid about the whole thing. Why should he care about her and her relationship in the first place? Sure, he was her best friend in the world and had been since she was nine, but still.   She didn't see why it mattered at all.

Arya managed to avoid running into anyone as she made her way up to the guest room and locked herself in it for the night, mind racing along.

\-----

Sansa was sitting on the couch, leaning up against her giant of a boyfriend watching a movie when Arya walked through the front door after getting off of work. Both of them turned around to look at her, and while Sansa smiled and paused the movie, Sandor Clegane merely scowled at her. Arya scowled back before she was swept up by Sansa's hug.

"You don't _have_ to do that every time I walk in, Sansa," Arya stated dryly as she removed herself from her sister's grasp.

"I know, but I haven't seen you in so long and now you're staying here… I'll get used to not hugging you so much when I get used to seeing you more often than usual." With that, the auburn-haired beauty swept back over to the couch. "There's left over noodles and sauce in the kitchen if you're hungry," Sansa said as she pressed play on the movie again.

Arya grabbed a plate of the food before stalking back up to the bedroom she'd been allotted during her stay. Briefly, she recalled her sister telling her to not eat outside of the kitchen, but she should have known that Arya wasn't the type to follow rules. Sure, she was grateful for having a place to stay that wasn't on Gendry's couch, but at the same time, rules were rules and Arya Stark didn't like following them unless she absolutely had to.

She plopped on the bed, shoving a fork full of food into her mouth before she checked her phone. It had been oddly silent in the last few days. Other than the one text message she had received from Gendry, asking if she was alright after having spent the night on his couch, she hadn't gotten any calls or anything. Granted, the only people who actually ever called or messaged her were Gendry, her sister, Jaqen, and her favorite brother. Her parents called her on rare occasions, but they were rather silent most of the time. Her brother was away on assignment in the very northern part of the country and wasn’t allowed to call his favorite sister. The thought of Jon made Arya's stomach drop uncomfortably and suddenly she wasn't as hungry as she thought she had been.

Groaning, she lay back and stared at the ceiling for a bit, trying to figure out what it was she was feeling. Though, in all honesty, she hadn't really been feeling much of anything lately. The last thing she remembered actually really _feeling_ was anger at Jaqen for saying that she had gained weight. And maybe she had. But who was he to judge her? He was supposed to love her and not care about any of that bullshit, right?

Another groan escaped her lips and she ran her hands over her face.

Footsteps sounded from the hallway outside the door and Arya caught the sound of hushed voices and the giggles of her sister. "Oh god," she muttered, shuddering at the thought of her sister getting laid by that Hound of hers. Images began popping up in the girl's head and she decided that she was _definitely_ not hungry anymore. "I'm gonna puke," she said to no one as she stood from the bed, grabbing the plate of uneaten food, her cell phone, and a hoodie before she made her way back downstairs.

Once in the kitchen, she dialed up Gendry quickly to come save her. He wouldn't mind if she stayed on his couch again, would he? Arya hoped not. She didn't think she could look at her sister for the rest of the night knowing that she'd been getting laid earlier. Arya doubted she would be able to look at her sister seriously for the rest of the week knowing _that_ horrifying bit of information.

She sat outisde on the curb while she waited for Gendry's car to pull up to take her away from the fantasy land that her sister lived in. Honestly, it wasn't much of a fantasy, but a reality. But it was everything that Sansa had always wanted for herself. Minus the gorgeous, glorious, and rich husband, of course. But Arya figured that she and Sandor weren't terribly far from that point. And Sansa was both rich and attractive enough for the two of them, so there was that as well.

Sansa was also living the dream that their mother had held for both of her daughters. Catelyn Tully-Stark had wanted Arya to follow along the same paths that Sansa had, but…well, it was far too much to have hoped for. Sansa had gone to university right after graduating high school, majoring in English and Journalism with a minor in History and Lore. Arya, on the other hand, had graduated high school a year after her elder sister and remained in Winterfell for another year before traveling to the south to visit her best friend. Said best friend then got her a job at the music store he worked at, and Arya moved in with her boyfriend of less than a year.

Compared to Sansa's life, Arya's was probably something of a nightmare for Catelyn.

But, honestly, Arya was not good at anything like her sister was. Or any of her other siblings, for that matter.

Robb, her eldest brother, had majored in politics and law and had gone off to follow their father's footsteps in the realm of government officials and lawyers. Jon, her bastard (and favorite) half-brother, had majored in foreign affairs and was off traveling the world with some foreign dignitary's daughter for a girlfriend. Bran was a genius and had graduated college just last year, around the time when she should have, and was living with his girlfriend in the north and performing some form of experiment that Arya understood nothing about. And Seven hells, even Rickon was popular and good at sports and graduating high school that year, despite his shyness.

Arya, on the other hand, had never really been that great at school. Jon had tried making her go to college for _something_ , but she wouldn't budge. Why waste her father's money on something that would end up being a waste to her anyway? Sure, she was smart and had gotten passable grades throughout school, but what would she even have majored in? Nothing, likely. Probably just gotten a basic business degree and been done with it. But she didn't want that for herself. She didn't want to have to waste four years of her life just to make other people happy.

Arya Stark didn't like school. She liked dancing and playing the guitar, foreign languages and traveling and swords. School had never been her thing. It was one of the larger disappointments for her parents, she was certain.

And now, she was homeless and living with her elder sister until she could find a place of her own all because her boyfriend had kicked her out and now he wasn't her boyfriend any longer.

Seven hells. Just what was she doing with her life?

That was why she couldn't tell her mother what had happened, though she was sure that Sansa already had. She couldn't just call up Jon and bother him with her woes, not when he was off preventing wars with some wildling princess. She could only imagine the look on her mother's face or the things that the woman would say to her… They were not pretty things to imagine and she certainly did not want to spend the rest of her evening doing so.

Gendry pulled up in front of her sister's home just before Arya started thinking about what her father would have thought about what his youngest daughter was doing with herself. As soon as she saw his car pull up to the curb, Arya shot up from the grass and dashed as fast as she could to him, throwing open the passenger side door and plopping herself in.

"Arya! What's wrong!?" he demanded. She sighed, running her hands over her face and through her messy hair.

" Sansa had the Hound over when I came home and they're doing things and just…ugh. Just please get me away from here for a while. Please," she pleaded. Gendry chuckled, only to have that chuckle evolve into a full-blown laugh.

"You're telling me that you called me to come pick you up, told me it was an emergency, all because your sister and her boyfriend are having sex tonight?" he laughed. Arya turned and glared at him, throwing a hard punch into his arm, before throwing another one in for good measure.

"Just shut the fuck up and drive, Stupid," she hissed at him. Gendry continued to chuckle a bit, shaking his head before he turned his car around and took off down the street.

"As m'lady commands." Arya threw another punch at him. "Ow! Okay, okay. Gods dammit. I'm starting to think I'm going to have a permanent bruise on my arm from you."

"Shut up and change the subject or I'll punch you again."

"How can someone so small be so damn irritating? I swear, it's like - Fucking hell, Arya!" She had punched him again, as hard as she could in the small confines of the car. Gendry turned to stare at her, offended that she would do such a thing. She stuck his tongue out at him and turned her gaze to the city as they drove through it. She heard Gendry sigh beside her and ignored him, waiting for him to speak before she did.

"So, what did you want to do?" he asked her after a moment as he came to a stop at a stoplight.

"I don't know. Anything. Your choice," she offered bluntly. Gendry huffed another sigh and she could hear his hair swoosh as he shook his head. He muttered something under his breath before he reached over and flicked the radio on. Arya watched him quietly for a moment before she turned back to looking out the window.

Gendry drove them to a bar that they used to frequent soon after Arya had turned the legal drinking age. They hadn't been there in forever. At least not together, anyway… Arya wondered if her best friend had been there without her very often.

"Figured you could use a drink after the trauma you've just endured," he teased as he removed his seat belt. She reached over to punch him, only to find that he had already escaped her reach. Growling, she climbed out of the car after him.

"For the love of the old gods and the new, do not remind me about that ever again if you want to keep living," she threatened. Gendry shook his head, chuckling slightly. Moving around the car, her friend joined her and they walked side-by-side into the old bar.

They were greeted by the familiar dim scene that typified the bar - yellow lights creating holes in the darkness in measured distances, illuminating pool tables, tables, and the bar beneath them. No one looked up when they entered, which was fine with Arya. She didn't feel like being the center of attention right now. Or ever, for that matter.   Gendry followed her over to the bar, to the pair of barstools where they usually sat at on the end and plopped themselves down.

"Hot Pie! I didn't know you were working here!" Arya exclaimed as her old friend from school plundered over to get them drinks.

"Well you would, if you left your house more to come see me!" the heavy-set man cried out. Arya rolled her eyes and shrugged simply. "How's it going, Gendry? Finally got her to agree to come out again?"

"More like we didn't have anything else to do and she wanted me to rescue her from overhearing her sister getting laid," Gendry deadpanned. Arya turned her glare back on him and punched his bicep with all her might, almost causing him to fall off of the stool he was perched on. "Fucking OW Arya!" Gendry roared. A few people who were close to them looked over at the pair as Arya continued to glare.

"You agreed not to say anything else about that, Stupid!" Arya hissed. Hot Pie eyed his two friends warily, a flat brow risen up.

"Why d'you need to avoid um… _that_?" her friend asked and Arya turned the glare onto the fat boy. He held his hands up in surrender, eyes going wide in his face. "Sorry! Just curious. Don't you two live on the opposite side of King's Landing?"

Arya grimaced and waved him off. "Broke up with Jaqen, staying in Crowns with Sansa," she said simply. "Now can I have a beer, _please_?" she asked. Her friend nodded and turned to Gendry, who also ordered a beer, before he turned around to get their drinks.

Gendry righted himself on the bar stool, warily looking at Arya from the corner of his eye. "You didn't have to punch me _that_ hard, you know."

"Shut up, Stupid." Gendry chuckled then and shook his head. Hot Pie came back with their drinks not a minute later and set them before his friends before leaning his arms on the bar counter.

"How's life been, Hot Pie?" Arya asked good-naturedly, if only to keep everyone away from the subject of her sister and her thrice-damned Hound. Her friend shrugged and waved a hand around him.

"Mum needed some extra help and wouldn't trust me around the pies." Arya looked over at Gendry and smirked, as if to share her thoughts on how surprising that fact was. "Told me I should get a job doing something else," he finished and shrugged. He turned his head to look down the bar at a pair that had sat down further down. "I'll talk to you guys later," he said with a grin before moving to help the other customers.

"Why didn't you tell me Hot Pie works here now?" Arya asked Gendry. He shrugged, finished pulling a drink from his beer before setting it down again.

"Didn't know you'd find it important information," he relayed simply.

"Oh," Arya replied with a shrug. Had she really been that removed from her friends in the years that she had been with Jaqen? Sure, she saw Gendry a lot because they worked together and he was the one who got her the job in the first place, but at the same time she hadn't been out to have a long, needed amount of fun in a while. Arya took a drink from her beer and hummed contentedly.

She enjoyed the atmosphere of their little bar. The Hollow Hill, it was called. It was a rather quiet affair with the usual customers, not many new people ever came 'round, but that was what made it so nice, Arya thought. In fact, it almost seemed sacrilege whenever a new person came in to have a drink. Maybe that was why Arya never felt comfortable coming out here in the years that she was with Jaqen…

The pair fell into a comfortable, companionable silence while they finished their drinks, got another for each of them, and then wandered off to play a round of pool in one of the dimmer corners of the bar. Arya, for not having played in years, beat Gendry twice and by the time they left the bar, she was making certain not to let him forget it.

"What the hell was with you tonight, Gendry?" she asked him, her words only a little slurred. She might have had a few more drinks than she had originally planned on. Gendry had stuck to two, since he had to drive them both back to his apartment. He rolled his eyes and groaned, having been asked that same damn question four times already.

"Would you shut up about it, already!?" Arya giggled at his response. It was _very_ unlike her, to giggle like that. Especially over something so stupid as him getting annoyed with her. But she giggled regardless and it made Gendry smile fondly over at her as they climbed into his car. Well, Gendry climbed in and Arya sort of _fell_ in, but the concept was the same.

They drove on in almost-silence, Arya humming along to a song that she had stuck in her head that had been playing in the bar. They made it back up to Gendry's apartment and Arya's condition only seemed to deteriorate. Her head felt fuzzy and she wasn't entirely sure where her thoughts were headed, but she was getting a headache trying to figure out the path they were taking. She thought of Jaqen kicking her out, of making up with him only to have him insult her, and then having to stay in Sansa's house but that wasn't really working because of Sandor and just…everything from the past few days was shifting around in her head and she couldn't find it in her to focus on just one thing. Her mind was too jumbled.

"Arya, do you want water?" Gendry asked. She looked up at him, vaguely remembering sitting down on his couch. Her vision was blurry for some reason as she nodded dumbly. Her mind kept taking her back to Jaqen, to the last thing that he had said to her…

Gendry placed a cold glass of water in her hands and she sipped at it half-heartedly. Gazing down at the contents, she felt the couch move a bit as her friend sat on the other end of it. "You alright?" he asked, concern etched along his face. Arya swallowed the lump that had appeared in her throat and nodded, grinning at him from ear to ear. The fact that he didn't quite believe her was evident, but she didn't have the energy or the mind power to be able to contradict his worries.

They were silent for a few moments, both sipping at the glasses of water in their hands. Gendry flicked on the television, going through a few channels to fill the silence before he settled on some news show, volume turned down. He was only partially watching it, most of his attention turned on Arya. She was staring at the glass in her hands and her eyes looked…wetter than usual.

"It's stupid, isn't it?" Arya said finally. A black eyebrow arched into Gendry's forehead.

"What is?"

"The relationship. All relationships," she said simply, as if that answered the question. Gendry was still feeling rather confused, most certainly having his question answered.

"What do you mean?" he asked again.

Arya shrugged as though it were nothing, but the way that her brows were pulled together said otherwise. "Iunno," she said, compacting the two words into one. "It's just… We were together three fucking years and all he can say to me is 'lose some fucking weight, Arya'," she continued. Her voice sounded more and more bitter as she spoke. "It's just fucking stupid. I'm fucking stupid."

"No you aren't," Gendry cut in quickly. She turned his head to him, seeing that expression that he got on his face when he was thinking too hard about something.

"You're right. You're the stupid one," she said with a small smile. Gendry smirked and shook his head. Arya had never been good with expressing her feelings and just when he thought he was going to get somewhere with her, she proved him wrong. She turned her head away again, grey eyes moving to the glass as she took another sip of water. "Doesn't matter though. D'you want to come with me when I get my shit on Saturday?"

"Sure," he said without thinking. Arya felt better, knowing that Gendry would be with her when she went and moved all of her stuff out of Jaqen's apartment. Honestly, she still wasn't entirely sure about leaving him in the first place, but there were some things that one could not forgive and she'd decided she liked her life quite a bit without him in it constantly. As much as she enjoyed his company and maybe even if she did love him a little bit, something in her was telling her that breaking up with him was the right thing to do.

Gendry was still giving her that stupid look, so she downed the rest of the water and forced herself to yawn so that he could stop looking so gods-damned concerned for her. Not that she didn't appreciate it, she just didn't think that it was worth it for him to be concerned about her. He had nothing to be concerned about, so why did he even bother? It made no sense to her.

Arya set the glass on the coffee table and swiveled so that her back was against the armrest. "Move, stupid, I'm sleepy," she managed. Gendry chuckled lightly and stood, picking up Arya's glass and taking it back into the kitchen. Arya adjusted herself on the couch so that she was comfortable, arm under her head and legs bent just slightly. "You've got, like, the comfiest couch in the existence of ever," she told him for the second time

"Yup," Gendry replied before he threw a light blanket over her. It smelled like him and Arya could barely help herself from snuggling into it and holding it close to her chest when Gendry walked away. "Hey…Arya?" he said, sounding unsure.

"Yeah, Gendry?" she asked back, too lazy to lift her head up to look over at him.

"Jaqen really is a fucking idiot," he told her for the second time in the span of two days. The statement made her brow furrow in question as the memory of him saying that the first time surfaced in her scattered brain. Arya was about to ask him what he meant when she heard his bedroom door close and that was the end of it. Sighing, the girl sunk into the couch, breathing the scent of Gendry as she drifted to sleep.

\-----

Sansa was wearing light blue, which reacted prettily to her colouring, but contrasted sharply to the blacks that her companions were wearing. Arya, at least, was wearing a faded purple t-shirt, but her pants were black and her shoes were as well. Her older sister made a silly sight, standing between her giant of a boyfriend and Gendry, who's shoulders were nearly as broad as the Hound's. Arya was sure she must look equally as silly, shorter than everyone in their group even if Sansa wasn't much taller than her.

They were waiting in the hallway for Jaqen to answer the stupid door and Arya wanted very much to strangle him right now. He wasn't answering, even though she had told him to be there at five o'clock sharp so that she could get the rest of her things and be done with everything.

An older woman poked her head out of the apartment down the hall, a child's arm and leg making it out of the door before she pulled the kid back inside and shut the door. Rolling her eyes, Arya huffed and knocked against the door again.

"Nice neighbors you've got," Sandor commented dryly. Arya turned a glare on him to shut him up, but both Sansa and Gendry were smirking so she knew her glare wasn't going to hold much weight.

Finally, after she had knocked again, Jaqen answered the door, looking surprised to find her there. "Ah, it is you, sweet girl," he purred.   She felt Gendry stiffen at the pet name and Arya rolled her eyes. Jaqen seemed to notice her companions and smiled one of his dangerous smiles. "A girl has brought company. Are we all having dinner?" Shoving past the older man, she entered the apartment.

"I'm just here to get my shit and leave, Jaqen. I told you I was done and I am," she said firmly. He was not going to change her mind, not now. Maybe that was why she needed to make sure that Gendry was there with her. Looking around the apartment, she was aware of her companions entering the apartment. Arya heard the door click close and turned to find Jaqen leaning against it, eyeing Gendry quietly.

"So a girl says," Jaqen said simply. He moved away from the door, tossing his hair over his shoulder. He walked into the bedroom and Arya sighed, closing her eyes and turning to her charges. Sansa looked pensive, Sandor looked rather awkward in the apartment, and Gendry looked irritated. They all turned to her and within a moment they were packing Arya's things into the boxes they had brought.

Gendry didn't stray very far away from Arya's side while they packed and periodically brought things down to Sandor's truck, and for that she was thankful. She wasn't sure what she would have done without him there with her.

She went into the bedroom by herself, however, to fill up a trash bag with all of her clothes. Jaqen was lounged on the bed, a book cradled in his hands, but he didn't look like was reading it. He watched her as she moved toward the dresser and began pulling clothes out, stuffing them into the big trash bag without much care to organization or making sure they stayed nice and folded.

"Is a girl really leaving?" he asked. Arya could feel her resolve weakening. She refused to look over at him as she clutched an old t-shirt in her hands, frozen in place. Jaqen placed the book down on the bed and stood, walking towards her in silence.

"Yes." Arya turned around to face him, still clutching the shirt in her fists. She set her jaw and straightened herself, as if doing so would show him that she was serious.

"But why must a girl leave?" he asked. Jaqen was looking at her with those eyes of his and it was making her feel more and more like this was the wrong decision. She turned away and began stuffing clothes into the trash bag more violently, moving as quickly as she could. He moved into her line of sight, just beside her. A hand reached out and tucked a stray strand of her dark hair away from her face.

Arya jerked away, her heart hammering in her chest as she shoved another pair of pants into the bag. It was getting full. Since when did she have so many damn clothes? "Don't," she commanded sternly. Jaqen smiled sweetly at her, his hand moving away for a moment. Arya turned to move past him, towards the closet, when he moved again. Without realizing it at first, Arya found herself shoved up against the wall, Jaqen's face before hers.

"Does a girl really want to leave?" he purred. Arya opened her mouth to protest, to tell him to step away or get punched, but he pressed his lips to hers hastily before she could protest. She let herself return the kiss for only a moment before she realized what was happening and she came back to her senses. Promptly placing her hands on his chest, she shoved him away from her as hard as she could manage.

Jaqen stumbled back a bit, his eyes narrowing her and that dangerous look coming back into them. "She does. A man fucking threw her out in the middle of the night, has not texted or called or said anything more than she is losing her fencer's physique in the fucking week that she has been gone, and a girl is finished with a man," Arya spat. She turned on her heel and made to leave.

"I'm waiting in the fucking car," she hissed as she shoved past Gendry at the door.

"Arya!?" her friend sounded alarmed as she stormed down the hall to the stairs. She could hear him following her and she could hear Sansa's confused questions as she ran down the stairs as fast as her feet could carry her. Arya's throat tightened and she swallowed the lump that had formed as best she could, clenching her jaw to keep herself from crying. She would not cry. Not over a stupid man. Not over Jaqen.

Gendry caught up with her as she reached Sandor's truck. She threw the door open as he called her name again. "Arya, what did he do?" he growled, sounding just as deadly as that look that Jaqen got in his eyes sometimes.

"Nothing," she replied, too quickly and too harshly for him to believe it.

"Arya…"

"He didn't fucking do anything, Gendry, okay!?" she cried, spinning on her heel and hating her traitor eyes for the tears welling within them. "Just…I just can't fucking be around him anymore," she added. Turning her head, she climbed into the back of the truck and closed the door after her, shutting Gendry out. Her friend stayed out there a moment longer before he spun around and stormed back up to her apartment.

Arya took advantage of the five minutes it took for the other three to join her in the truck by making sure that she was most definitely not crying. It had been a bad idea to get her things with Jaqen around. A very bad idea indeed. Part of her wanted to go back with him, to have his companionship and the security that he brought to her, but a larger part told her that it wasn't worth it. Sure, he had not made a major insult, but everything was too much for her right now.

The truth was, she had missed him and had missed the way he spoke, but it was clear through his neglect to call or text her that he did not care for her the way she thought she did for him.   And, to add to that, they had been fighting so much lately that it really was not worth it to keep fighting for the relationship to continue. It was useless. Better to break it now than to water dead flowers and let it continue like that.

Sandor and Gendry carried down the two trash bags of Arya's clothing, both looking rather livid as they deposited them into the bed of the truck. Sansa climbed in while they did that and threw Arya a worried look. "You alright, Arya?" her sister asked.

Rolling her eyes, Arya stared out the window. "I'm fine," she said simply. Sansa left it at that, knowing better than to argue with her sister anymore.

Gendry climbed into the back of the truck, squeezing his bulk in and not exactly fitting. While they had driven over to the apartment, Gendry had sat in the front with Sandor while Sansa and Arya were in the back. Arya looked over at him as she scooted over to make room for him. She could feel tension and anger pooling off of him in waves, and she looked over at him. He was looking studiously ahead as Sandor started the truck and pulled away from the complex.

Gendry grabbed her hand then. It was a strong grip and he didn't let go even though Arya looked at him, puzzled. She couldn't deny that having her hand in Gendry's was a comfort she hadn't realized that she needed. Turning her head back to look out the window, they remained in silence all the way to Crowns.

When they got back to Sansa's house, they carried Arya's things up to the bedroom she was occupying. Arya sat down on the edge of the bed when they were done. Sandor went back downstairs and Sansa lingered in the doorway for a moment. "Are you sure everything's okay, Arya?" her sister asked again. Arya looked over at her and sighed.

"I'm fine, Sansa. Really," she insisted. Sansa didn't look like she believed her, but she shrugged and sighed.

"Come, Little Bird. We're going to be late for the movie," Sandor ordered. Sansa offered a smile to her sister.

"I'll be back sometime tomorrow evening."

"Gross," Arya muttered, scrunching up her face. She heard Gendry snort from somewhere near the dresser.

"Oh hush, Arya. If you need anything, just call or text," her sister instructed. Rolling her eyes, Arya nodded and shooed her away.

She and Gendry stayed quiet for a moment. "Thank you for helping today," she told him turning her head to look at him. He had his arms crossed over his chest and he had a look on his face that told her he was thinking too much again. He nodded, staying leaned up against the dresser.

"No problem." They fell into silence again and for some reason Arya felt awkward about it. Maybe it was because she still didn't know quite what to make of what her feelings were doing to her. She sighed slightly and lay back on the bed staring up at the ceiling above her. "You okay?" he asked.

Arya nodded. "Yup."

Gendry didn't believe her, she knew, but she didn't feel like talking about any of it. "Do you want to come over? Play some games or something?" he asked. Arya sighed again, pulling her lower lip between her teeth to bite down on it in thought.

"No. I think I'll just stay here," she said after a moment. Gendry nodded and stayed at the dresser for another moment, looking around the room before his eyes landed on Arya again.

"You deserve better than him, you know that right?" Gendry said finally. Arya sighed and nodded slowly. Sure, Jaqen hadn't exactly been the best boyfriend in the world, but he had been the first boy or man or whatever to see her as more than just Arya Horse-Face and to make her feel truly good about herself. Maybe that was why she was unsure about leaving him. As selfish and ridiculous as it was, being with Jaqen at least made her feel less like a failure in life. She didn't say anything, just nodded slightly in response to his question.

Gendry sighed and pulled his phone out to check the time. "I should go. You sure you're alright and don't want to come over?" he asked again. Arya groaned and sat up, tossing a glare over at him.

"Gendry. I'm _fine_. I'm just…tired and I don't want to do anything," she told him firmly. He gave her a look that said he didn't believe her, but he at least nodded and made to leave. He paused in the door and turned, his blue eyes catching hers. "If I need anything, I'll call you." There was a slight annoyed tinge in her voice. Gendry chuckled and nodded.

"Good. I'll see you at work on Monday, then," he said before he was gone too. Arya threw herself back onto the bed again after she heard the front door open and close.

' _Why in the Seven Hells did I have to be a girl?_ ' she asked herself mentally. Maybe showering would make her feel better. Gathering her things, she maneuvered around the small boxes and stole into the upstairs bathroom, glad that both Roslin and Margaery were off somewhere else for the weekend.

She had told Gendry that she was fine, that she didn't need his or anyone's company and that breaking up with Jaqen didn't bother her. But, truthfully, it was weird to be alone again after three years. No, their relationship hadn't been perfect and they had fought almost constantly, but it had been the center of Arya's life for three years and now it was just…over. There was something in her stomach that made her feel empty.

Maybe she should have gone with Gendry, to get her mind off of things and be around someone she enjoyed being around, but it was too late now. He was gone and she was here and…well, it was useless to brood on now. Arya finished with her shower and dressed in a pair of sweats and baggy t-shirt, glad that she finally had her entire wardrobe with her. Taking her phone with her, she went downstairs to curl up on the couch and flip through the television channels until something caught her eye.


End file.
